Download WORDS BY ALAN WATSON FEATHERSTONE, FOUNDER OF

REWILDING
THE SCOTTISH
HIGHLANDS
WORDS BY ALAN WATSON FEATHERSTONE, FOUNDER OF TREES FOR LIFE
IMAGES BY PETER CAIRNS, MARK HABLIN AND JAMES SHOOTER
Until now, most conservation campaigns
have been defensive in character, and have
concentrated on‘damage limitation’attempting to save species or habitats from
destruction. While some initiatives have had
success, the overall trend has been a net loss
of both species and habitats in most parts of
the world. This ecological depletion is readily
apparent and the impacts are felt both on
wildlife populations and on humanity itself.
In the last decades of the 20th century, a more pro-active
dimension to conservation began to emerge, which attempted
to not just stop the destruction of habitats or species, but to
reverse the damage that had already taken place. The focus
is on allowing natural processes to become re-established, so
that ecosystems, and their interconnected web of species, can
become more fully functional again.
Rewilding therefore, can be viewed as a movement to reverse
the damage that has been inflicted on the planet. In practical
terms, rewilding consists of the restoration of healthy vegetation
communities, reinstatement of ecological processes and the
reintroduction of key species that have been removed.
In the UK, there has been increasing interest
in the concept and practice of rewilding, and
much of this has been directed towards the
Scottish Highlands due to its low human
population, relatively large areas of land with
limited economic activity and the increasing
recognition of the degraded condition of
ecosystems in much of the region.
In a Highland context, the starting point
for rewilding is the restoration of healthy
vegetation communities. There is a paucity
of these at present, due to overexploitation.
Today most of the Highlands are tree-less and
many areas are scarred by peat hags – open
sores caused by peat erosion. Vegetation
is unable to recolonise deforested areas
because of overgrazing by deer and sheep,
and excessive numbers of these herbivores
have prevented the establishment of any new
trees in most places for 150-200 years, leaving
the surviving forest remnants as ‘geriatric
woodlands’ consisting only of old trees, that
are dying off without being replaced.
In the last two or three decades, considerable
efforts have been made to restore and
expand native forests, through the use of
either fenced exclosures, where deer and
sheep are completely absent, or by reducing
deer numbers to a very low density by greatly
increased cull targets. The results of such
initiatives are readily apparent in many sites
from Beinn Eighe and Creag Meagaidh to Glen
Affric and Abernethy, with a new generation of
trees becoming established through natural
regeneration, and a healthy and vigorous
growth of understorey plants.
Once healthy vegetation communities become re-established,
further elements of ecosystem recovery take place spontaneously.
Young trees and the vigorous growth of other plants attract flying
insects. They in turn draw in insectivorous birds, which may also
transport the seeds of plants in their gut, depositing them in
their droppings, where they germinate and grow, adding to the
recovery and diversity of the vegetation. Increased populations
of birds and small mammals will support raptors and terrestrial
predators, such as pine martens, foxes and wildcats.
At this stage, the rewilding process could be said to be well
underway, but further steps are still required, for ecosystems
to return to full health. Such steps include the reintroduction
of missing species, which could range from wood ants to top
predators such as the lynx, wolf and brown bear. A growing body
of evidence from rewilding projects in other countries is showing
that apex predators play a crucial top-down role in the regulation
of ecosystems. In Yellowstone, a whole series of unexpected
ecological benefits has now been documented due to the return
of wolves there, ranging from increased scavenging opportunities
at wolf kill sites to improved vegetation for beavers along
watercourses. There is no doubt that the reintroduction of wolves
in Scotland, which is increasingly being advocated, would produce
similar knock-on ecological benefits here.
The re-establishment of raptors such as the sea eagle, osprey
and red kite are one of the success stories of rewilding in the
Highlands, although their numbers are still well below the carrying
capacity of the land. The trial reintroduction programme for
European beavers in Argyll is another important step forward
for rewilding.
The more significant step of reintroducing a large terrestrial
predator has not yet been attempted, and while the wolf is
often discussed in this respect, the Eurasian lynx is a more
realistic prospect for reinstatement in the near future and many
advocates of rewilding are now calling for serious consideration
of a lynx reintroduction. If this gains traction in official circles, it
will be an indication that the value and importance of rewilding is
being given credence at the highest level.
Rewilding faces some serious obstacles before it can be said
to be fully implemented in a Highland context. These include
the imbalance between huge numbers of large herbivores and
overgrazed vegetation communities. While the culling of deer
by people does play a role in limiting the population, it does not
replicate the other functions of predators.
Another serious impediment to rewilding is the proliferation of
large-scale wind farms. Financed by massive subsidies, these
Rewilding can be
defined by the three
‘C’s: Cores, Corridors
and Carnivores.
THE REWILDING INSTITUTE
are being installed at a rapid rate in areas that previously have
been relatively unaffected by human infrastructure. Each wind
farm creates not only a massive visual intrusion in an otherwise
relatively natural landscape, but through its network of turbines,
access tracks and powerlines, creates a hazard for large raptors
and bats, an invasion route for non-native plants and disruption
to local hydrological systems.
Beyond these physical constraints, other factors operate
at a cultural level to limit or prevent the implementation of
rewilding. Those include public attitudes to predators such as
the wolf, which have been deeply ingrained by a long history of
demonization. Our attitudes towards wolves are an expression of
a human fear of wild nature, which expresses itself in many forms
in our modern culture. That in turn is one of the main drivers
for the overarching objective of contemporary human culture to
be in control of the planet, and to ‘manage’ nature in every way.
Rewilding represents a counterpoint to that trend, and it will only
become fully successful if we as a species are willing to step back
from the current impetus to utilise every part of the Highlands,
and indeed of the whole world, for human material gain and let
nature, and natural processes prevail in some areas again at least.